Eurogroup welcomes completion of national procedures to approve Greek bailout

Gazzetta team 17 Ιουλίου 2015 - 19:39

A Eurogroup statement issued on Friday welcomed steps taken by euro-area national parliaments to clear the path for a new three-year bailout for Greece from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), "and especially the recent swift legislative steps taken by the Greek parliament as a first step towards rebuilding trust."

"Following a formal decision taken by the ESM Board of Governors, the institutions were entrusted with the task of swiftly negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) detailing the policy conditionality attached to the financial assistance facility," it said.

The announcement said the Eurogroup also welcomed a decision of the European Council to grant a 7.16-billion-euro bridging loan to Greece from the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and "the very constructive approach taken by the non-euro area EU Member States" to financing Greece.

"In this context, the Eurogroup agrees in principle to transfer the 2014 SMP equivalent profits to be held at an ECB account to ensure legally enforceable rights to protect non euro area Member States from a risk of loss resulting from an EFSM programme to Greece. This will be confirmed by a letter from the President of the Eurogroup to the ESM. The SMP profits will be exclusively used either as compensation to non-euro area Member States in case of losses or will be returned to the euro area Member States, if not needed. Should Greece fail to repay the EFSM loan, the available instruments to recover the debt and protect the Union budget will be used, confirming that the risks of not concluding swiftly the negotiations on the ESM programme remain fully with Greece," it said.